This invention relates generally to hand tools and utensils and more specifically to a scoop utensil particularly useful in the kitchen for scooping up chopped vegetables, grated cheeses, and other foods during cooking.
Chefs have long used knives, graters, choppers and other cutting utensils in the kitchen for chopping, dicing, shredding, and grating foods for cooking. For example, vegetables such as onions, radishes, celery, lettuce, and the like often are chopped, diced, or shredded into small pieces for use in soups and salads. Graters often are used to create mounds of grated cheeses for pizzas, salads, and soups. Traditionally, when a mound of chopped or grated food is to be picked up and placed into a dish being prepared by a chef, the chef simply scoops up the mound between cupped hands, carries it to the dish under preparation, and dumps it in the dish. While this technique certainly is functional and has been used successfully for centuries, it nevertheless has various inherent shortcomings that render it less than optimum. For instance, in order that the hands can be used to scoop up food, all other utensils must be put down. In addition, the act of scooping up the food and carrying it across the kitchen to be placed in a pan, pot, or dish requires the full use of both hands, which therefore are not available for other activities. The very shape of the hands themselves renders them inefficient for scooping and, invariably, some of the chopped-up food being scooped is left behind to be scraped into a sink or otherwise discarded. Such clean up is a wasteful and time consuming task. The chef also must stop to wipe or clean his or her hands after having scooped up and dumped the chopped food, which takes even more time. Finally, the use of the hands in this way can be unsanitary if, for example, the hands are not properly cleaned or carry undesirable bacteria or other contaminates from other food, such as uncooked poultry, that has been handled by the chef.
Some chefs have been known to improvise in an attempt to improve upon the hand-scooping of chopped-up foods by using a cookie sheet, cutting board, dough cutter, or other flat utensil for scooping up food instead of scooping it up with the hands. While this can help, it nevertheless is an unsatisfactory solution because these utensils are not properly sized or shaped for the job, are awkward to handle in such a task, and/or tend to spill the chopped-up food over the sides of the utensil.
Accordingly, a persistent need exists for a utensil that can be used in the kitchen for scooping up mounds of chopped, shredded, and grated foods quickly and efficiently, carrying the food across the kitchen, and dumping it into a soup or other dish being prepared. Such a utensil should be simple and easy to manipulate by a chef without requiring the use of both hands. Further, it should be sanitary, should prevent the scooped-up food from being spilled while being moved, and should be attractive, compact, and economical to manufacture. It is to the provision of such a utensil that the present invention is primarily directed.
Briefly described, the present invention, in one preferred embodiment thereof, comprises a scoop utensil that is particularly useful in the kitchen for scooping up food such as chopped and shredded vegetables. The utensil, which preferably is unitarily formed from injection molded plastic or other appropriate material, has a pan that is formed with a flat floor bounded on either side by upstanding walls. The forward edge of the floor tapers to a relatively sharp edge for slipping easily under foods when scooping them up. The walls of the pan contain the food and prevent it from being spilled when being carried across the kitchen. At the back of the pan is formed an ergonomically shaped handle portion to provide a comfortable and convenient grip for a chef. The handle portion has a generally oval-shaped cross section and is rearwardly and gently curved or arched to fit comfortably in the hand. The handle portion also bounds the rear of the pan to prevent spillage of food in this direction from the pan.
In use, a chef simply grasps the scoop utensil by the handle portion and slides the tapered forward edge of the pan under a mound of food to be scooped up. Another utensil such as, for example, a knife, can be used if desired to help shovel the food into the pan. Once securely in the pan, the scoop utensil is simply tilted back slightly to prevent spillage over the front of the pan and the scooped-up food is carried to where it is needed, all requiring only one hand of the chef. Because of its shape and tapered forward edge, the scoop utensil of this invention is efficient, scooping up virtually all of a mound of chopped, shredded, or grated meats, veggies, cheese, or other foods with ease. Using the scoop utensil is substantially more sanitary than using the hands and will not transfer undesirable bacteria or other contaminants from the chef""s hands to the scooped-up food.
It will thus be seen that a utensil is now provided that addresses and solves all of the shortcomings of traditional techniques and that is attractive, economical to manufacture, compact for easy storage, and efficient to use. The utensil of this invention also has many uses outside the kitchen, for example, as a digging tool in the garden, as a useful addition to a hiker""s backpack, as a shop implement for collecting items such as sawdust or spilled nails, and even as a standard issue utility tool for military troops in the field. These and other features, objects, and advantages of the scoop utensil of this invention will become more apparent upon review of the detailed description set forth below when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which are briefly described as follows.